and the hillsborough stone

Duke is beautiful and everyone knows that. Never mind the tale that James B. Duke, crushed that Princeton University declined to accept his gift under the condition that the university change its name from Princeton to Duke, built his own gothic wonderland in Durham, North Carolina. With Princeton to thank maybe, Duke is unarguably breathtaking in its aesthetic achievements. With architect Julian Abele at the helm of the project, Duke's West Campus would become immortalized in stone and set itself up to embody all the iconic majesty that a southern, private institution of higher education should. What is less commonly known is that the stone that makes Duke so medievally gothic is homegrown and native to nearby Hillsborough, North Carolina. James B. Duke of course wanted the Princeton Stone to be used just as it was used in the construction of the University, but it is found only in a quarry in Princeton, New Jersey. James B. Duke, disappointed yet again, found it more cost effective to settle for the stone that would be extracted from the Hillsborough Quarry instead.